Discussion

Raciel1990

CULTPSY3_Chapter12_PDFHandout.pdf

Home >Psychology homework help >Discussion

Lecture PowerPoint Slides

By Benjamin Cheung

Cultural Psychology Third Edition

Steven J. Heine

Chapter 12 —Morality, Religion, and Justice

Chapter Objectives

 In this chapter, you will:

• Define secularization theory

• Discuss the challenges of ethnocentrism in understanding cultural variability

• Differentiate among the different levels of Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning

• Discuss ways in which Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning is both universal and culturally variable

• Differentiate among Shweder’s codes of ethics

• Relate Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning and Shweder’s codes of ethics to each other

Chapter Objectives

 In this chapter, you will:

• Differentiate between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft groups

• Relate Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft groups to Shweder’s codes of ethics

• Understand the conflicts between orthodox and progressive cultural groups

• Discuss the relationship between orthodoxy/progressiveness and Shweder’s codes of ethics

• Identify and differentiate between the five moral intuitions

• Understand the relationship between the moral intuitions and one’s political orientation

Chapter Objectives

 In this chapter, you will:

• Relate the five moral intuitions to Shweder’s codes of ethics

• Discuss how cultural variability exists in whether thoughts are moralized

• Differentiate between the different ways in which cultures distribute resources fairly

• Discuss how economic games reveal fairness norms

• Understand how cultures negotiate between fairness for groups versus individuals

Overriding Themes in This Chapter

 Morality is shaped by “codes” that vary across cultures.

 Cultures may also differ on what domain qualifies as being under the purview of morality.

Secularization?

 Perception among many that as the world progresses, there will be less reliance on religious explanations of the world around us. • Secularization theory

 This trend is culturally constrained, with religiosity rising in some regions of the world.

Moral Judgment

Moral Development

 Kohlberg’s Stage Theory of Morality • Most influential model of moral reasoning

• Proposes universal progression through three levels

Preconventional Level • Level 1

Conventional Level • Level 2

Postconventional Level • Level 3

Moral Development

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging 10 times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have done that? Why or why not?

Moral Development

Preconventional Level • Level 1

Conventional Level • Level 2

Postconventional Level • Level 3

Calculation of what provides the best overall return

Following the rules, maintaining and facilitating social order

Morality is…

Considering abstract, universal ethical principles that emphasize individual rights

Moral Development

 Meta-analysis revealed that…

Preconventional Level • Level 1

Conventional Level • Level 2

Postconventional Level • Level 3

Universally, there are adults that reason at this levelUniversally, no average

adult reasons at this level, but children reason at this level

Differently, no one from traditional tribes or villages reason at this level. It is mostly seen among the Western urban populations.

Moral Development

 Two explanations: • Education system in the West allows for

people to reach the third level. » Ethnocentric in that it presupposes that the third

stage is the best stage

• Cultures encounter different challenges, and moral systems develop in response to particular cultural environments.

» There may be moral values that Kohlberg’s model does not include.

Moral Ethics

 Shweder proposes three key moral ethics that are evident universally

Ethics

Ethic of Autonomy

Ethic of Community Ethic of Divinity

Moral Ethics

 Ethic of Autonomy • Morality is that which protects justice and

individual rights.

• Concerned with whether one was harmed, denied their rights, acted unfairly, tried to dominate someone else

 Kohlberg’s model emphasizes justice and individual rights. • Shweder thus argues the model really taps

Moral Ethics

 Ethic of Autonomy • Two different social structures: Gemeinschaft

and Gesellschaft » Gemeinschaft is more closely associated with

“community,” in which interpersonal relationships are very important.

» Gesellschaft is associated more closely with what we would think of “society,” in which autonomous individuals are bound together through social convention, rules, and laws.

Moral Ethics

 Ethic of Community • Morality is tied to an individual’s interpersonal

obligations within social order.

• Concerned with whether someone showed a lack of loyalty, betrayed their group, or failed to fulfill the duties of their role

Moral Ethics

 Moral obligations • Objective obligation

» Something that should be done even if no rule exist

• Legitimately regulated » People should be prevented from doing something,

and should be punished if they do it

 If not a moral obligation, then it is a convention or personal choice.

Moral Ethics

 Ethic of Divinity • Concerned about sanctity and perceived

“natural order” of things

• One is obligated to preserve the standards mandated by a transcendent authority.

» Usually involves a belief that God has created a sacred world, which one must respect and preserve

When Cultural Ethics Collide

 Morality studies are often done by pitting competing ethics against each other in the form of moral dilemmas.

 Orthodox versus Progressive moral reasoning

When Cultural Ethics Collide

Defining Moral Ethics

Ethics

Ethic of Autonomy

Protect fairness

Avoid harm

Ethic of Community

Respect hierarchy

Loyalty to ingroup

Ethic of Divinity

Achieve purity

 Haidt elaborates on Shweder’s model:

Defining Moral Ethics

Morality of Thoughts

 There seems to be a divide between Judaism and Christianity in terms of whether thoughts constitute a moral domain.

Morality of Thoughts

 The New Testament (i.e. the Christian part of the Bible) explicitly discusses private thoughts as moral domains.

 In contrast, the Old Testatment (i.e. the Hebrew Bible) has little to say about beliefs—mostly about behaviors. • Eight of the Ten Commandments concern

behaviors.

Culture and Fairness

 “Fairness” can be defined in many different ways, based on: • Principle of need = resources are directed

toward those who need them the most

• Principle of equality = resources should be shared equally among members of a group

• Principle of equity = resources are distributed based on an individual’s contributions

Culture and Fairness

Collectivistic systems

Seniority systems

Less motivation to work hard

More harmonious relations

Individualistic systems

Meritocracies

Motivation to work hard Breeds competition

Culture and Fairness

 A study contrasted Americans and Indians and asked them how to distribute money for a bonus to two employees • Employee 1: very effective worker

• Employee 2: in poor financial situation due to illness in the family

Culture and Fairness

 Perceptions of fairness are also studied using economic games, such as Dictator Games (DG).

 The DG goes as follows: • Two players are assigned as either the

proposer or the receiver; they don’t meet.

• Proposer is given some money and can offer any amount of this to the receiver.

• Receiver must accept the amount given by the proposer.

Culture and Fairness

 The “rational” solution is to give no money to the receiver—one’s own gains are maximized.

 In studies conducted in the United States, this almost never happens. • Instead, they generally give approximately 50%.

 Economists explain this nonrational behavior by proposing that people evolved to be concerned about their reputation. • This concern led to norms of fairness that allow for

large-scale cooperation and trust to develop

Culture and Fairness

 However, economists have based their claims completely on Western samples.

 Joe Henrich tested these claims by studying economic games in small-scale societies.

Culture and Fairness

 More analyses revealed that, controlling for various other factors, two variables predicted which societies made larger offers (i.e. more fair). • Market integration

• Religion

Culture and Fairness

 Market integration was operationalized as percentage of calories purchased in the market. • The more experience one had in dealing with

markets, the stronger their motivations for fairness

 Religion—larger societies have religions that offer moral guidance. • Belief in such religions is associated with

Culture and Fairness

 Another way of studying perceptions of fairness is the Public Goods Game.

 The Public Goods Game goes as follows: • A group of people are given some amount of

money. They then decide to contribute some amount to a collective pot.

• The pot then grows by some predetermined amount.

• This pot is then divided evenly among the members of the group.

Culture and Fairness

 As the game continues, many people will try to not contribute to the pot while still receiving a dividend. • Beneficial to the individual, but not the group

 Two types of punishment prevent this behavior: • Altruistic punishment

• Antisocial punishment

Culture and Fairness

 Perceptions of fairness can also differ by collectivism and individualism. • Collectivism appears to be more accepting of

scapegoating individuals for the good of a group.

» For instance, scapegoating an innocent person so that the community feels safer is more accepted in collectivistic societies than in individualistic societies.

Summary

 Morality can be seen as universal, relativistic, or both.

 Even perceptions of fairness vary across cultures. • What some have assumed to be a human

tendency to be fair has been shown to be a WEIRD finding.

 Morality applies to different domains in different cultures.